140,000
without power caused by fire during record breaking heatwave in the
Valley California

Power
has been restored to more than a third of the 140,000 Valley homes
and businesses affected by an intentional outage Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power officials caused Saturday to aid
firefighters battling flames at a DWP facility.

DWP estimated the
initial power outage affected 140,000 customers on a very warm night
in the following communities: Northridge, Winnetka, Reseda, Lake
Balboa, Tarzana, North Hills, Granada Hills, Chatsworth, West Hills,
Canoga Park and Woodland Hills.

But by about 10 p.m., power for
50,000 of those customers was restored, according to the DWP.

The
power was purposefully cut to allow firefighters to safely work
heavy flames at the plant at 18900 Parthenia St., the DWP reported.
An explosion was first reported at 6:53 p.m., Brian Humphrey of the
Los Angeles Fire Department said.

The facility is known as
Receiving Station J, said LADWP spokesman Michael Ventre.

It was
not known when all power would be restored.

An LADWP employee on
the scene said he'd just gotten off a 16 hour-shift and would have
to start another at midnight.

"It's got to be done," he
said.

"People are without power."

Eighty-four
firefighters used water and foam to extinguish the fire, Humphrey
said.The fire was in an energized storage vault that contained
50-60,000 gallons of mineral oil, he said. No injuries were
reported.

The outages occurred following a day of record high
temperatures across the Southland, including Woodland Hills, where
the high reached 110 degrees,

besting the previous record of 108,
set in 2006. Downtown Los Angeles tied its record temperature of 96
degrees, which was set July 8, 1954.